During an interview with Satoshi Sakai the producer of Phantasy Star Universe and also the new Phantasy Star Zero he discussed some of the details behind the new Nintendo DS RPG. This looks like another title I will be importing over to play on the go. This one will be in a new world but will be modeled after Phantasy Star Online (PSO) and will give you the opportunity to play online.
The ability to draw and chat online will lead to some interesting illustrations I can imagine, you just took my super rare dagger you get “C======3”. I am all about nostalgia so bring on some classic PSO action for me to enjoy along with my Phantasy Star Portable for my PSP.
· Phantasy Star Zero is a completely new title set in a brand new world.
· Zero’s gameplay mechanics will be based heavily around PSO’s. But despite this, the developers hope that the unique style will attract more fans to the series, even those who have never touched a previous Phantasy Star title.
· The Nintendo DS was selected as the platform for this title to help broaden the age range of players.
· Zero was selected as part of the title to invoke thoughts of a new beginning for the series.
· You will be able to play with people you’ve never met over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. No details were given on if or how Friend Codes will be used, however.
· PS0 will not support voice chat or vibration functions.
· PSO’s word select system is a possibility, but has not been confirmed.
· PSO’s symbol chat will not return for this game. It is being replaced by visual chat, allowing users to draw their own pictures using the stylus.
· Many common item and technique names will return from PSO.
· The developers hope that, despite this game taking place in a completely new world, it will still bring out feelings of nostalgia and other fond memories.
Wrath of the Lich King is boasting many things like new areas, new enemies, new weapons and even new mounts. Here you can see that they are incorporating in a Mammoth Mount, you actually get to ride a giant mammoth around, which is pretty cool.
Even better still is at the end of the video you will see a character on a motorcycle, seems that as part of the engineering skill you will be able to make yourself a motorcycle mount to get around the world. Blizzard knows exactly what to add in to keep you hooked in and grabbing the next expansion.
With the noise revolving around Diablo III and Starcraft II another huge question jumps into my mind, will we ever see a Diablo or Starcraft MMO?
Right now Blizzard enjoys its time at the top of the food chain with World of Warcraft Online and its huge gamer fan base. We hear almost on a daily basis of all the follow on MMOs that are trying to be the next WoW killer, but they all fall short. The closest thing to a true WoW killer was Age of Conan and that game has all but fallen apart with its lack of quests for certain level characters and lack of end game content, players have already began canceling their accounts. Read More »
Many people have been or are currently hooked on the ever popular and growing genre of games we call Massively Multiplayer Online games, MMO for short. Many argue that the charm of an MMO is the ability to have an expansive experience that changes and never really ends, but there are some that argue the opposite and see a lot of satisfaction in a game that has a clear cut ending. Let the debate begin… Read More »
If you haven’t had a chance to go over to the Blizzard site you will see a landing page that is covered in ice, each day the ice cracks a bit more and reveals a bit more of what is behind the sheet of ice. Many are speculating that behind the ice lies the announcement of Diablo 3, others think it is World of Warcraft related and some think it may be the street date for Starcraft 2.
I personally I would like to see it be the announcement of the beginnings of a Starcraft MMO, this has been a long time coming and they should be working on it now!
The ice should completely break and reveal the mystery in a few days, but until then lets all ponder and make wild guesses, ready… set… go!
The minds behind the ever-popular and still growing Lord of The Rings MMORPG, have confirmed that they are discussing and starting the process a MMO for consoles. This would be an awesome idea because there are plenty of gamers out there who want to get into a MMO, but don’t have the CPU requirements or are not going to buy PC games when they have $2500 tvs and surround sound set-ups.
We’ve hired over 60 people since the beginning of the year,”… The people that invested in us, Time Warner… one of the media giants, getting into the MMO fold, and that’s obviously a big deal… They also have a huge distribution network… that may bear fruit for us.
Expect much more on this once some details are confirmed. Turbine is an awesome developer and there constant free upgrades to LOTR make them a frontrunner in gamer/developer relations. We are much looking forward to more news on this.
SONY recently ran a survey and got back feedback from female students at The Art Institute and found some interesting stats:
The survey interviewed female students currently enrolled in Game Art & Design, Visual & Game Programming and Visual Effects & Motion Graphics at The Art Institutes schools. The SOE-sponsored survey revealed that:
- 61% of students surveyed believe male dominance in the industry is a deterrent to women pursuing a career in gaming
- 42% of those surveyed would like to see women portrayed as leaders in video games
- 35% of the students surveyed want to create more games that are fun and interesting for women to play
- 31% of those surveyed want to become involved in gaming because more women need to represent the industry
I know a lot of guy gamers out there feel that there aren’t enough female gamers playing, but studies have shown that 40% of all gamers are actually female, of course they just don’t want to talk to you over Xbox LIVE.
Looks like SONY is taking note of the drastic increase in female gamers after all and providing a nice scholarship for a lucky female gamer to further her video game career. Not only will you get $10,000, but also a ten week internship at SONY, pretty impressive hookup. Entries begin April 1 and need to be in by or before April 15.
Hit the jump for the full press release: Read More »
And the ballsiest statement of the month award goes to Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley. In an interview with GameDaily, Smedley had this to say when asked if the PS3 would get an MMO game to rival World of Warcraft:
“I absolutely do [think we'll see that], and in fact I think by having a stable platform where every customer has an online capable box is a huge, huge potential advantage in building an MMO because you’ve already got an online userbase. It’s a massive advantage over the PC and we don’t have to worry about graphics cards or things like that. It’s going to be very big. Console online gaming in general I think is going to be one of the next huge phases of growth in the online gaming space.”
Ummm, I just don’t think it’s going to happen. Console gamers aren’t going to buy the game and then pay a $15 a month subscription fee to play online. Console gamers want to play Halo or Call of Duty and shoot people in the head, not for guilds and party up to take down a goblin horde. Just my 2 cents… I don’t think it’ll ever happen.
Perfect KO is a Korean MMO that looks to incorporate a large scale fight sequence a la Matrix. Not sure how the leveling dynamic will work or how large the battles will be, but the game looks like a corss between Tekken and Street Fighter set in an MMO. The video shows a couple of 3 on 3 fights with different style fighters just causing mayhem, I wouldn’t mind setting up a Loot Ninja character. What do you guys think?
Today The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar announces that players will get Book 11: Defenders of Eriador, another free expansion to the already deep LOTR MMO. THis update brings 100 new quests, a new 12 player raid, more areas to squish hobbits and a new house system, so now you can stuff your orc in a hobbit house. Book 11: Defenders of Eriador will be available to subscribers of The Lord of the Rings Online on October 24, 2007 in North America and October 25, 2007 in Europe.
We're like Spaceballs... we're making Loot Ninja everything. Coming soon we'll have hats, shirts, hoodies, possibly banana hammocks if one Editor has his way...
Check out the shirt prototypes here and the hats here
Today The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar announces that players will get Book 11: Defenders of Eriador, another free expansion to the already deep LOTR MMO. THis update brings 100 new quests, a new 12 player raid, more areas to squish hobbits and a new house system, so now you can stuff your orc in a hobbit house. Book 11: Defenders of Eriador will be available to subscribers of The Lord of the Rings Online on October 24, 2007 in North America and October 25, 2007 in Europe. 
